


Never a Box

by Angeleyz4ever



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Anniversary, Character is dead, Fluff and Angst, Future Fic, M/M, Malec, Memories, Past Alec Lightwood, Sad Magnus Bane
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-23
Updated: 2018-05-23
Packaged: 2019-05-13 03:11:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14740940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Angeleyz4ever/pseuds/Angeleyz4ever
Summary: No matter how much he missed his Alexander he never needed to go to the box for memories of him.No arrowhead or spatula for that matter rested in the box, Magnus laughed softly. It was not even a box.Magnus had hardly even looked at that box in over 90 years.





	Never a Box

**Author's Note:**

> I do not know what came over me. I just had to write it. I cried as I did. Fair warning... sad Magnus always breaks my heart.

His hands move automatically. Reaching and measuring, sprinkling and sifting.

The quiet of the morning is broken only by the small clinking of mixing bowls. He hums to himself as he checks the heat in the pan before turning back to the task at hand.

His hand stills, hovering over the utensil. 

A sad smile curves his lips; his fingers caress the wooden handle worn with age. Lifting it, he remembers the words, spoken harshly at the time but eventually became a standing joke in the kitchen.

Their kitchen.

 _“Maybe you should save the spatula I used for your little box.”_ Magnus sighed both then and now.

Magnus places the utensil back down and with a flick of his wrist everything is back to normal and breakfast is on the table.  He had always made French toast on their anniversary for Magnus. Magnus just couldn’t bring himself to complete the task.

Sad, he moves over to the table and sits to eat his food, memories washing over him from the argument from so long ago. It hadn’t been their first fight and it hadn’t been their last but it had been important.  

He can laugh at it now, but he had been so very wrong.  Magnus Bane, the former High Warlock of Brooklyn, and centuries old warlock had been so horribly wrong, to think that a simple treasure would be enough.

‘ _Alec Lightwood-Bane_ ’, Magnus thought. He had been so very wrong about everything that week. Telling him that all he wanted to do was to focus on the ‘here and now’, foolishly thinking that would be enough. Then, because he had tried to deflect the issue of immortality, he made it about Alec’s inability to deal because he was inexperienced. They had fought, after his quip about the spatula and then everything went to hell. Well Edom specifically.   

They had both been very wrong in the beginning.  They had learned though and not long after, when Alec almost died and Magnus lost his powers, they finally figured it out. 

Magnus was still figuring it out, even after all of these years. Magnus had kept the spatula, always magically enhancing its age.

Well… he did after Alec had helped him retrieve his magic back from his father. 

That had been interesting.  His father was more than impressed with the Shadowhunter and had given Alec a deal he couldn’t refuse; no matter how hard Magnus had fought them both.   He would give Magnus his powers back in exchange for Alec. Alec negotiated and Asmodeus offered that when Magnus’ long life ended that both the Shadowhunter and he would join him in Edom. Giving up his angel blood but giving them eternity together, kind of.

Magnus flatly refused but Alec smiled and with an unknown glint in his hazel eyes, agreed.  Magnus had been more than furious and refused to speak with his archer for days.  Shutting himself in his apothecary and sealing the door shut to anyone with Nephilim blood. 

Shaking his head, the memory of his guilt-ridden boyfriend when he emerged almost made him smile. Alec begged Magnus to listen to his reasons...  

 

_Alec had taken his hands, looking into the cat eyes he loved so dearly and quietly explained. “Magnus if you are willing to give up something that is very much a part of who you are, because of how you feel about me and after only after a couple months! Well in 50 or 60 years what will you be willing to give up when I pass?” Magnus frowned at the thought, not wanting to think about losing him. “See this way, you will have a reason to keep going, because as long as you’re alive he can’t have me and if you die….well then I get to be with you. So it will be ok.”_

 

Alec had been right of course.  The day he lost his husband, he thought about life without him and he was so tempted to do what other warlocks had done before him, but Alec had made the deal so he could live, so he hadn’t gone through with his dark thoughts.  He smiled looking down as long tan fingers move over the golden band gracing his left hand. Alec knew him better than he knew himself. He missed that. 

No matter how much he missed his Alexander he never needed to go to the box for memories of him.

No arrowhead, or spatula for that matter rested in the box. Magnus laughed softly,  _a box_.  Magnus had hardly even looked at that box in over 90 years.  Nope, he didn’t need it.

Magnus had said his memory was not magical and he it was true, except when it came to Alexander.

Even though it had been well over a century since they had met, he can still see the dopey smile on Alec’s face as he introduced himself. Feel the way his heart pounded as his eyes lit up when Magnus spoke to him. The look of determination when he marched down the aisle of his wedding to kiss the warlock and not the bride. The pride at coming out to everyone and not caring what they thought.

It was love at first sight for Magnus and later as the years went by, Alec admitted that he had been terrified by the feelings he had but they were no less than Magnus’ even at that first meeting.  

Now as he looks around he sees that love everywhere. Everything around Magnus was a testament to Alec Lightwood-Bane and the love he shared with the warlock.  He put himself into every memory, every item. Some worried at first that it would be too much and it was. There were days when Magnus hurt physically from missing him, seeing their home devoid of his love.

The kids no longer lived with them and so they had offered to help him box up Alec’s belongings, but there was so much stuff that was theirs, that it would have been torture. Moreover, Magnus didn’t want to lose everything that was Alec’s just because his husband was no longer with him. 

They had had 75 amazing years and Magnus loved every second of it, so why hide it away? Even now, 5 decades later Alec’s favorite books rest in his shelves and his coffee cup rests on his desk in the office. Magnus has no desire for it to change.

He knows that Cat worries he will never get over Alec.  He’s seen the looks he gets from her and Raph and Blueberry, but even after the last of Alec’s siblings had passed he just felt like it was a betrayal to turn his back on it all, so he kept it. He still changed the furniture and decorations but not the heart of the loft it was always the same.  

Most days it was easy, except ones like today. A day that was special to them. Shaking his head at his mood, he knew what his husband would say if he were here.

 _“Magnus, come on baby. Smile for me and let me see how much you love me.”_  

Then he would call Cat, have her whip up a portal, and pull Magnus in to destinations unknown for a beautiful day of love.

As he closes his eyes, he could almost hear his voice; almost feel his large calloused hand on his face.

Lost in his memories Magnus doesn’t see the shimmering light as it floats near him. 

 _“I love you Magnus Lightwood-Bane,”_ whispered into the air around him like a summer breeze.

Magnus smiled softly. Alec always knew how to take care of him. Knowing he was going to be ok, he whispered back…

 

“I love you too, Alexander.”  

 


End file.
